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2 Advent

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 In you, Lord, I have taken refuge;let me never be put to shame;deliver me in your righteousness.2 Turn your ear to me,come quickly to my rescue;be my rock of refuge,a strong fortress to save me.3 Since you are my rock and my fortress,for the sake of your name lead and guide me.4 Keep me free from the trap that is set for me,for you are my refuge.5 Into your hands I commit my spirit;deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.

6 I hate those who cling to worthless idols;as for me, I trust in the Lord.7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love,for you saw my afflictionand knew the anguish of my soul.8 You have not given me into the hands of the enemybut have set my feet in a spacious place.

9 Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress;my eyes grow weak with sorrow,my soul and body with grief.10 My life is consumed by anguishand my years by groaning;my strength fails because of my affliction,[b]and my bones grow weak.11 Because of all my enemies,I am the utter contempt of my neighborsand an object of dread to my closest friends—those who see me on the street flee from me.12 I am forgotten as though I were dead;I have become like broken pottery.13 For I hear many whispering,“Terror on every side!”They conspire against meand plot to take my life.

14 But I trust in you, Lord;I say, “You are my God.”15 My times are in your hands;deliver me from the hands of my enemies,from those who pursue me.16 Let your face shine on your servant;save me in your unfailing love.17 Let me not be put to shame,Lord,for I have cried out to you;but let the wicked be put to shameand be silent in the realm of the dead.18 Let their lying lips be silenced,for with pride and contemptthey speak arrogantly against the righteous.

19 How abundant are the good thingsthat you have stored up for those who fear you,that you bestow in the sight of all,on those who take refuge in you.20 In the shelter of your presence you hide themfrom all human intrigues;you keep them safe in your dwellingfrom accusing tongues.

21 Praise be to the Lord,for he showed me the wonders of his lovewhen I was in a city under siege.22 In my alarm I said,“I am cut off from your sight!”Yet you heard my cry for mercywhen I called to you for help.

23 Love the Lord, all his faithful people!The Lord preserves those who are true to him,but the proud he pays back in full.24 Be strong and take heart,all you who hope in the Lord.

Psalm 35

Of David.

1 Contend,Lord, with those who contend with me;fight against those who fight against me.2 Take up shield and armor;arise and come to my aid.3 Brandish spear and javelin[a]against those who pursue me.Say to me,“I am your salvation.”

4 May those who seek my lifebe disgraced and put to shame;may those who plot my ruinbe turned back in dismay.5 May they be like chaff before the wind,with the angel of the Lord driving them away;6 may their path be dark and slippery,with the angel of the Lord pursuing them.

7 Since they hid their net for me without causeand without cause dug a pit for me,8 may ruin overtake them by surprise—may the net they hid entangle them,may they fall into the pit, to their ruin.9 Then my soul will rejoice in the Lordand delight in his salvation.10 My whole being will exclaim,“Who is like you,Lord?You rescue the poor from those too strong for them,the poor and needy from those who rob them.”

11 Ruthless witnesses come forward;they question me on things I know nothing about.12 They repay me evil for goodand leave me like one bereaved.13 Yet when they were ill, I put on sackclothand humbled myself with fasting.When my prayers returned to me unanswered,14 I went about mourningas though for my friend or brother.I bowed my head in griefas though weeping for my mother.15 But when I stumbled, they gathered in glee;assailants gathered against me without my knowledge.They slandered me without ceasing.16 Like the ungodly they maliciously mocked;[b]they gnashed their teeth at me.

17 How long, Lord, will you look on?Rescue me from their ravages,my precious life from these lions.18 I will give you thanks in the great assembly;among the throngs I will praise you.19 Do not let those gloat over mewho are my enemies without cause;do not let those who hate me without reasonmaliciously wink the eye.20 They do not speak peaceably,but devise false accusationsagainst those who live quietly in the land.21 They sneer at me and say, “Aha! Aha!With our own eyes we have seen it.”

22 Lord, you have seen this; do not be silent.Do not be far from me, Lord.23 Awake, and rise to my defense!Contend for me, my God and Lord.24 Vindicate me in your righteousness, Lord my God;do not let them gloat over me.25 Do not let them think, “Aha, just what we wanted!”or say, “We have swallowed him up.”

26 May all who gloat over my distressbe put to shame and confusion;may all who exalt themselves over mebe clothed with shame and disgrace.27 May those who delight in my vindicationshout for joy and gladness;may they always say, “The Lord be exalted,who delights in the well-being of his servant.”

A Call to Build the House of the Lord

1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak,[a] the high priest:

2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’”

3 Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai:4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.6 You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord.9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house.10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops.11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord.

13 Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people: “I am with you,” declares the Lord.14 So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God,15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month.

The Promised Glory of the New House

In the second year of King Darius,

Footnotes:

Haggai 1:1Hebrew Jehozadak, a variant of Jozadak; also in verses 12 and 14

To the Church in Thyatira

18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you,25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’[a]—just as I have received authority from my Father.28 I will also give that one the morning star.29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!

33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.36 Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.38 Look, your house is left to you desolate.39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’[a]”